Light requirements

[farid2544]

I have a 90 gallon tank. Normally I run 250w halides x 2 and T5 54w x4. I run my T5's for 13 hours and my halides for 8 hours. This morning my one side, T5 x 2, wont turn on. My tank is a mixed reef with SPS, LPS, soft corals, and fish. My question is how much light do the SPS need for now to be alright. With the 2 lights out, I still have 6 watts per gallon. Is that enough?

 

[farid2544]

How many watts per gallon do i need for SPS, LPS and soft corals?

 

[Derbird]

I am by no means an expert but I would think the 2 X 250 halides would be plenty. My guess would be the t-5's were actinic. The corals don't actually need that but I makes them look amazing

 

[farid2544]

2 were actinic and 2 were 10k. Now it's 1 of each.

 

[Chichas01]

Throw out the 'watts per gallon' estimate. The halides should be plenty good for SPS in the top half of your tank; that's said without knowing how deep your tank is and how high off the water your lighting is. When I ran 250 halides on my 80 they where about 10-11" off the water and did great.

 

[farid2544]

It's about 4-5 inches of the water. And the tank is 24 inches deep. My Sps corals are mid tank and up. Lps mid tank and below. Softys on the sides mid tank and below.

 

[Katchupoy]

Just to add, the watts per gallon is not an accurate guide for lighting a tank. But like Thomas said, your remaining light is plentiful. Enough for you to fix it at your convenience..

 

[farid2544]

Thank you guys for your knowledge. I was a little worried when 2 of my T5s went out.

 

[colin779]

I actually run two 175w halides over my 90 and that's all. Lamps are about 9 inches off the water and are 20k's. There's sps 1/3 up from the bottom all the way up, they all do great. Zoos, mushrooms, LPS are all mixed in as well. As they mentioned above, you'll be fine =)

 

[Holygral]

I run 2x250 MH on my 125 4 inches off the water, and even my nems flourish, they are on 5 hours a day.